


A Lesson for a Fool

by Grain_Crain



Series: Tumblr Asks [2]
Category: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, GSG9 Poly, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-06 16:07:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17348315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grain_Crain/pseuds/Grain_Crain
Summary: It goes without saying that Marius appears to be the least intimidating out of three. When angered, Dominic uses his sharp tongue to shred whoever offended him and Elias leaps with a fist first. Marius? He just needs to be heard before it's too late.





	A Lesson for a Fool

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DatGirlSuzie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DatGirlSuzie/gifts).



> This is meant to be a response of an ask that I got on [my tumblr](https://grain-crain-drain.tumblr.com/post/181833548893/13-with-gsg9-male-poly-dont-worry-iq-with-ash). Here is the original post of the [angst otp prompt](https://wonder7pickle.tumblr.com/post/169123215826/45-otp-angst-prompts)
> 
> The prompt no. 13 for this fic is “I can’t live without you. Don’t go. Please.”

From one look at the three German men, none of the bystanders would’ve guessed them as homoerotic three musketeers. How did they begin? It was probably when the sexual tension sparked ever since Dominic decided to scoot right next to them in the open shower bay. Or maybe it was when Elias pulled them in closer for a victory hug after missions. Wait, did it begin whenever Marius hurdle in to show off his newest blueprint? Either or. Something pulled them together and it felt great when they affirmed the mysterious attraction towards each other. Elias appeared thrilled, Marius blushed feverishly, but Dominic did neither. He was worried about losing this happiness, a gem that he managed to find and conquer.

For the first time in a while, Dominic found tranquility within newly formed love of his life. He relaxed without waking up in middle of the night. Life felt better without such daunting habit that he developed from the undercover days where he had to send in reports at odd hours of night. The prickles that he felt on back of his head dissipated and night times had comfortable warmth with two men cuddling with him. Things felt right and just, until he grabbed a Sunday newspaper to scan over. Although the headline was small with short paragraphs, he clearly read the reappearance of Hells Angels in Bremen. The sheer thought of those vandals active and alive made him wrinkle the paper and damp it with cold sweat forming under his palm.

Old luggages that he had burrowed resurfaced, as if those memories crept out to drag him back to the void. _Why does nothing good ever last long enough for him to fully enjoy_? For instance, if he didn’t show off his batteries to Cedrick, he wouldn’t have gotten injured. They would have made a great team together, and he wouldn’t have had to spend those four years in Hannover. Those few remaining gangs must be looking for him to cut his throat. He would have been dead by now if the government didn’t provide him with an alias.

Superstition or an overt cautiousness; this led him to believe that some things are best kept in secret. Locked away in a treasure box and hidden in a plethora of other boxes that look just as similar as the real one. Dominic wanted to keep their love low and under the surface. He lied to the other two by saying that he was still in-the-closet and thankfully they respected his wishes. They acted chummy during the day and frisky by the night. Their intimacy was covered as means of close friendship, and that’s all Dominic was willing to show in public.

As time went on, their colleagues began to tease about the hickeys on Elias’ neck. He blew it off as one time fling and Dominic was completely fine with that but _apparently,_ Marius begged to differ. Whenever someone commented on a silly goofy grin on his face, Marius hinted towards having ‘a good night’s sleep’ while winking at either Dominic or Elias. The other laughed it off while Dominic felt his heart thumping on different levels of emotions. Happy to have his love recognised, but fearful to be exposed in such a way.

“Marius, please.” He urged the mechanic to keep it down.

“But why?” Conversations became discussions, then it aggravated into arguments. Heated debates usually cooled down as Elias volunteered to be the mediator, but it was obvious to see who hurt each other more. Dominic had ways with words while Marius fumbled to demand explanations. It was always Dominic who was in hurry to ‘wrap up’ their ‘misunderstandings’ while Elias encouraged them to hug it out. The guilt was a minor hindrance, but paranoia kept Dominic up till very late. _What if someone talks about them? Who will tell who? How will his intimacy slip out of the base and when will the Hells Angels find out about him? Is this relationship all worth the trouble? Will Marius and Elias accept Dominic, a paranoid mess?_

The answer was simple. Earn a fuck ton of money, survive their duties and retire early. Buy a residential property in a working class neighborhood of Germany and install reasonable amount of home securities, which includes firearms. Extravagant life wasn’t his style and he figured neither of the two preferred fancy life either. And to achieve this seemingly simple future, Dominic was determined to outperform in every given assignments. Which meant that he needed absolute cooperation from his lovers while lying about how he really felt. He spent sleepless nights drawing and studying every maps available for their practices to formulate a foolproof plan. He was aware of how abrupt this would appear, but this had to be the way for them to succeed.

“You’ve been staying up all night ever since I argued with you and then show up with this… plan. Will you please tell us what’s going on with you?” Marius held Dominic’s shoulder, tempting him to give up on his resolve.

“Not now. I will tell you when the time is right.” An empty promise, but such one with full of conviction. He knew more than a thing or two about tactics, even if it may be a street wisdom rather than a properly educated knowledge; and it worked to some extent because Marius and Dominic usually display flawless coordination as roamers, like a pair of well-oiled cogs working in sync. They followed the detailed markings on the map of their given area. The pair was perfect and pulled through even with some hard patches between them. Well, they used to be until Dominic became visibly irritated as time went by.

“I’ve told you to station there!” Dominic growled when they lost by the score of two to three.

“But if I stayed there, they would have flanked me!” Marius yelled back while fiddling with his helmet. They spent the entire evening with bickers until Elias was there to cool them off again. Dominic wasn’t ignorant of the bags under his lovers’ eyes, but he told himself that this is all part of achieving a better future for them. A future that has all three of them in it. According to him, they just had to sacrifice a little to attain their happiness. Something that he would wish to enjoy for a lifetime.

 

* * *

 

It was another casual match between the orange and blue, and yet they’ve started the round with a clumsy start. Mute _had_ to put his jammers where Dominic planned on to place the CEDs and it didn’t even matter with Maverick as the newest addition to Team Rainbow. Elias didn’t have much luck either when the blue chose Clash as his counter.

The overall score was zero to two, a grim foreshadow of third losing streaks for the orange this week. As one of the last remaining three of the defending team, Dominic was struggling to turn the table around. He surveyed the area and stopped himself from making an audible cuss when the ADS wasn’t moving like it usually does.

“Jäger,” Dominic whispered through the comm device, “Is your ADS in point D working at all?” He waited for a reply but heard nothing, “Damn it, answer me!” It only took a second until he saw multiple of stun grenades dropping in front of him, which wasn’t a big problem as he could just avert his eyes away. Just as he thought he can move away-

“Lights on!” Flashes of blue and white popped into all kinds of directions and that’s how Dominic predicted his defeat. He coughed at the pressure of shotgun on his back and laid low as soon as the health gauge hit zero. Pretending to be a useless corpse was never fun, especially when he was forced to sit back within a minute into this round. They wouldn’t have lost so pathetically with a score of zero to three _again_ , only if him and Marius were on board with what they have planned originally. Dominic kept his mouth shut throughout the whole process of cleaning up and debriefing, but the way Elias nudged the older man was an indication of how poorly he hid the frown away. Marius came to notice the heavy atmosphere when they came back into their dorm.

“Dom, it was just a practice round.” Marius reached out to hold his partner, but flinched when his chest was jabbed at.

“Are you deaf? Or blind? Because if you are, I won’t blame you at all.” Dominic held the urge to ramble out a worse remark and he was very close to doing so.

“What? No, listen-”

“Listen, huh? So you aren’t deaf.” Dominic cut in.

“Liebe, see, I-” Marius tried again to reason.

“Oh, you _see_? Then you aren’t blind either.”

“I think you should simmer down first.” Elias interjected while nervously glancing at Marius.

“No, I am perfectly cool. I need to know why Marius’ ADS malfunctioned and why he didn’t answer me immediately when I paged him. It’s funny, because we’ve planned these tactics together on the same day, on the same map and used the same wires to fix both of our gadgets!” Despite the claim of him being calm, Dominic ranted as if everything had to be said under a stroke of breath, “Just tell me. Why did it malfunction?”

“I don’t know. It should have worked fine. Was there an EMP grenade? Or Monika could have been around.” Marius replied but his voice faltered in uncertainty.

“No, I would have known if they were around. Unlike someone else in this room, my hearing is fine!” Dominic spread the map on the table and jabbed on the place he was hiding, “You know what? Forget about it. I shouldn’t have thought of relying on those damned machines in the first place.” He shrugged and slid the map off of the table. As he walked away from the two, one of them clamped on his shoulder. Dominic winced in pain and assumed it being Elias with iron grip, but when he turned around, his mouth gaped open at Marius with a facial expression that he hadn’t seen before.

“Take that back.” This wasn’t the timid man that his two lovers knew of. Although Marius’ jaws quivered, Dominic guessed it was out of anger rather than pitiful wingeness.

“Right. Let go of me first,” Dominic rolled his shoulder and hoped he could divert this tension with a small apology and Elias’ help. Marius clenched tighter and the supposed mediator sat back from them. The way Elias sealed his lips shut and glared was plenty of indication that he wasn’t impressed either. Dominic rolled his neck and thought of a way out of this sticky situation.

“Why are you being so sour?” Marius fidgeted at his own impolite attitude, but stood his ground to maintain the firm grip, “It’s just- I don’t understand you. Why do you gotta be such a control freak about this? I am capable without you on my back all the time. You always say whatever you want,” Marius pulled Dominic around to have their eyes met, “And never really say sorry.”

“Oh, sure. _I_ am the one who should apologise, because _I_ am that someone who ignores a comrade when they’ve done poor on the maintenance on those stupid things.” Dominic let the anger run through his mouth.

“One more word, Dom!” Marius pulled in the mocking man. His knuckle turned white from gripping too hard, “Say that one more time and I will-”

“You will, what? Punch me? Cry? Trap yourself in the workshop and tinker on those pathetic turrets that failed-” Dominic was wrong. It was Elias who threw a fast jab on Dominic’s chin while he was hurling hurtful words at Marius. Through a blurred vision, he saw Marius shaking his head and looking down at him, almost bending down as if he was about to lend a helping hand. Dominic wouldn’t have accepted such kindness. He scoffed at the idea of being unworthy of Marius’ unconditional love, but he felt an ache on his chest when Marius stormed out of the room without looking back.

“I should’ve stopped you sooner,” Elias helped his lover back on his feet, “Damn you and your mouth.”

“You have one too, you know,” Dominic spat out the taste of iron, “A mouth. Could’ve yelled at me to stop.”

“Would you have stopped though?”

“No.” Dominic sighed in relief and regret. Here he was, suffocating himself with self-doubt, pity and excuses behind his ruthless behaviour when he fails to achieve what he wants. Perhaps it was time for him to come clean and have a long talk with his lovers, and yet there was a tug on the back of his mind whispering, ‘ _Not yet. They won’t understand you.’_

“I know that you have your reasons,” Elias gently wiped a trace of blood off of Dominic’s lips, “And I am waiting for you to tell us. But you need to stop taking your anger out on him.”

“I suppose so.” It was hard for him to tone down the attitude, despite agreeing with Elias to some extent. Before he heard more nags, Dominic walked out and headed to the workshop as he assumed Marius to be there. He meant to apologise. Not just this time, but also whenever conflict broke out between them. While being aware of having a stupid amount of stubborness, Dominic always found it hard to apologise; partly due to the fact that his temper anxiety won’t just dissipate. ‘Sorry’ wasn’t the magic word to bring the change within him. Nevertheless, he wanted to try in being less of a control freak like Marius had said.

 

* * *

 

Upon entering the workshop, Dominic expected at least a spanner or two flying at his direction. Instead, he saw Monika fiddling with Emmanuelle’s drone while the said woman sat next to the German’s. Marius’ table remained clean and organised with different tools compartmentalised on the rack. The only messy object was the faulty ADS that he blamed everything on.

“Have you seen Marius?”

“Yeah. He looked upset, though.” Emmanuelle stared at him intently, giving the notion that she was judging him already without knowing the full story.

“Monika, where did he go?” He ignored the French and flexed his fists to rub off sweats on the palms.  

“Probably to Eliza. He asked us about her.” Hearing their colleague struck  fear and worry. _Why would Marius want a word with her? Isn’t she someone who Six has been talking a lot nowadays?_ Some might have said that Dominic looked like a mad man on the loose, because he ran every corner within the base to find them. On the hindsight, he would’ve had found them faster if he asked the ladies of Ash’s whereabout. Having someone outside of their social circle knowing their secret turned his panic button on.

They weren’t in her office nor the briefing room. He checked the living room only to find anyone but Eliza and Marius, and garage had no one in there either. He sprinted everywhere and scanned the same places at least twice, then eventually gave up and stumbled back into their dorm. Elias was still there on the couch, reading and typing something on his phone without acknowledging whoever was in the room. They sat together in silence, which helped Dominic to think about what to say when Marius returned eventually. He had a whole lot of other questions to ask without sounding interrogative, another bundle of self-righteous excuses of his rage but foremostly, he thought to apologise first. That was the proper order that he planned and mentally prepared to go through.

“Eli,” Speak of the devil, “Is Dom still out?” Marius opened the door and instantly appeared uneasy.

“What, you want me out?” _Wrong thing to say, damn it._ Dominic punished his stupidity by pinching his thigh.

“No. I-I guess it’s better that you are here,” Marius squeezed past the men and sat close to Elias, but far away from Dominic, “I thought about doing this without telling you guys. Then I thought that would be too cruel.”

“Doing what?”

“I’m assigned into a joint mission.” He explained a little more on why he had to leave the base for about three months, like it was nothing to worry about. Dominic could tell that Marius was itching to elaborate, and yet the usual blabbermouth kept all the crucial details out.

“What mission?” Dominic felt the weight pressing down on his heart as he feared the worst might come true, “Where is this located?”

“More importantly, why are you going?” Elias arched over his arm to pull all three closer, equally stunned and confused.

“Unlike someone said that I am not a capable specialist, I thought I would show him there is more than one thing that I am good at. Plus, it pays quite well.” Marius stood up and walked over to find a duffel bag.

“No,” Dominic snatched the bag and threw it away, “You’re not going.”

“Dom, please. This is for the better.” The other man picked it up and continued to pack his belongings.

“Marius! This is all too sudden.” Elias followed Marius around the room and persisted in convincing to reconsider. In midst of the two bickering what’s beneficial for them as whole, Dominic didn’t move an inch. Trails of thoughts wounded up around his brain, blinded all the insight that he had a few minutes before, strangled the voice of reason in his throat and finally became a tangled mess that sunk his heart deeper into darker emotions.

“So that’s it. You just leave us when things get hard.” The venom that he spat out surprised everybody.

“Yes, because _you_ constantly make it hard for me and all the others,” There was a tinge of shaky trill when Marius angrily faced Dominic, “You completely ignore what I have to say and dare to insult my creation, the turrets that I put my blood and sweat into. You _know_ how those magpies are important for me and you continued to shit on them. I am leaving because I need a breather.”

“Guys, this isn’t the best time to do this _again._ ”

“I guess I stepped out of my line, but come on! Reject the offer. They don’t need you there, do they? I’m sure there are other people who can fill your role.” _No, no, no._ What was up with Dominic and his inability to be more soft spoken? To be able to express concerns and affections without sounding so disgraceful?

“That’s it. I’m going!” That was the last button to push. Marius violently shoved clothes and sanitary items until the big bag was full, “Elias, I am sorry to do this to you. I’ll be back, I promise you.” He gave a soft peck on Elias’ lips who looked helplessly enraged and saddened all at the same time. Dominic was screaming inside when Marius came to him, staring into those hauntingly beautiful pair of greens that he fell in love with. The sparkling jewels that he might lose over his pettiness.

“I can’t live without you. Don’t go. Please,” Dominic shuddered in desperation. The frightening realisation of the danger within their line of career and the uncertainty of what will happen in those three months crushed his useless sense of arrogance. Without him, Elias and Marius altogether in the picture, the ambition of achieving the peaceful retirement would be rendered into nothing. The possibility of Marius being injured or hurt without anybody to hold him dearly was dreadful. He refused to allow such thing to happen, especially when all Dominic had done was oppressing such selfless devotion. There were some days when he wanted to bash his head against a pole and attain brain damage, so he can forget about the superstitions that he had developed over those years. Then he wouldn’t have had to care or be paranoid. Be secretive, “Mari, I’m sorry. I beg you. ”

“You should have said that sooner,” Marius hung his head and hid tears. He then cupped the older man’s cheeks and gave him a small kiss. Realising that the mission Marius took wasn’t something small of a scale, Dominic couldn’t plead him to pull out. Remorse was all he felt. He was the rampant control freak who drove his partners nuts. Without a doubt, he was paying the full price. The three bid awkward farewell and Dominic expected Elias to walk away as well. The man had all the right to pummel him to death for aggravating the situation. Instead, he heard an earful lecture of how much of a douchebag he was, and then a solid promise to tell everything when Marius comes back alive.

“That’s the least you can do.” Elias nailed down the truth and Dominic accepted it, minus all the negativity he portrayed during the entirety of their relationship. Marius doesn’t make decisions out of spite. The mechanic is the most level-headed out of the three and he is quite passionate about his career. Living life to the fullest while taking great care of himself and the others who are important to him. That’s why Dominic realised that he was truly in the wrong. That he was the one who pushed Marius into an unknown danger. He would do anything when their boyfriend returns safe and sound, and this time he must never let go of a treasure that he once took for granted.

**Author's Note:**

> I thank [Pocketedcrayon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pocketedcrayon/pseuds/Pocketedcrayon) and [Jayvee11](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jayvee11/pseuds/Jayvee11) for inspirations and proofreading.
> 
> Also [Diana](https://todragonsart.tumblr.com/), I couldn't have made this story more plausible and 'energetic' ;) Thank you so much for the suggestions, proofread and brainstorms!!!


End file.
